“A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.”
Proverbs 15:14, NLT
I’d cut through the back parking lot of a store when I noticed a woman picking food out of a trash dumpster. When she saw me looking at her, she came over and asked if I had any money I could spare so she could get something to eat. I told her that I didn’t have any cash on me but that I was willing to go into the nearby restaurant and buy her a meal. She said no. Sensing that she may not want to go in because of her appearance, I offered to bring a menu out and order a take away meal for her. “This place has a variety of good items to choose from, and it’s healthier than eating out of that dumpster”, I urged her. Again she refused. She went back to eating out of the dumpster.
Who’d claim to be hungry and choose to eat dumpster trash instead of a healthy meal? How wise is that?
How wise are we when we claim to be examples of Christ while our thoughts, words, and actions reflect unwholesome living that is dishonoring to God? Our mouths open and some vulgar statement flies right out. Our attitudes and tone with loved ones reflect sarcasm and rudeness. We become judgmental of others. The woman at the dumpster believed that she had to have cash in order to get something to eat. She allowed herself to be led away from fulfilling the very need she claimed to have. When we believe that we can live spiritually effective lives while feeding our minds with garbage, we allow ourselves to be led away from God. Loading our minds with these things blocks progress in our walk with the Lord, because we repeatedly hunger for and feed on trash instead of knowledge.
Godly knowledge is grounded in the truth of God’s Word, (a truth without which there’d be no knowledge). We read in Philippians 4:8 that we should, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise”.
We can be encouraged to know that when we feed our minds with godly knowledge, we’ll lead lives in line with God’s plan and we’ll grow hungry for more and more of His Word.
We have to be careful what we feed our minds each day. Are you feeding on trash or truth?
By grace through faith,
Rita
One day I listened to a young lady who was clearly exasperated. She said, “I’ve tried everything I know to do and nothing’s working out!” How many times had I spoken those very words and felt like there was absolutely no place else to turn?
One morning I received a call from our lawn service guy. It was the day his team was scheduled to come cut our grass. He informed me that he thought it was going to rain that day so they’d try and come out on the following weekend to do the cut. No, I thought! Not good! He and his team had missed cutting the grass for the last couple of weeks. They’d committed to come take care of this today. Am I being too impatient, I wondered? I went outside and stared at the lawn again. Two beaver-looking critters scurried underneath the fence when they heard me approaching. A third lingered boldly, as if invited to a grassy buffet in our backyard. Nope, I am definitely not being too impatient; our lawn was in desperate need of a thorough cutting. These guys need to come out and take care of business this morning! I called our guy back and urged him to come cut the grass that very morning, before any rain hit, since it wasn’t raining yet! They came and cut the entire lawn before one raindrop fell. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also got in several other lawns before any rain fell that day because it didn’t rain until that evening! Our lawn guy thought he knew when the rain would come but he really didn’t. He was willing to put the work off just a little longer in anticipation of an outcome for which he had no control.